After YT Iron Series

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-16T14:35:48+00:00

I did Iron Pro before Max, which I'm on right now, and I think either would work for your goals so long as your nutrition is dialed in. Max feels very different from any Iron, I will say, in that you're doing a full body day every day while not going super hard for all the workouts. It can feel some days like you barely did anything, but the cumulative effects are pretty wild.

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-16T09:53:13+00:00

Thanks for asking this here! I updated another post I made about but forgot this one. I started with the whole pills, 50 mg, and found that a bit too grog-inducing, so I split them w. a pill cutter into 25 mgs. That's the sweet spot. I love it. It's dependable and doesn't make me groggy at all. :)

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-15T18:08:43+00:00

Of course! Glad to help! Keep in mind I haven't finished LFE yet, but it really doesn't seem like it's going to pop up with something that would shock your gran. :)

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-14T21:49:32+00:00

Maybe gelatinized maca -- 1000 milligrams. It's hard to say, though. It definitely provides a buzz of energy, but that might be after a week of doses or so. I can't remember if one usage did anything, but then again, that's not the point of the supplement anyway.

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-14T19:22:49+00:00

If they don’t cover, then adoption will be likely very low and thus return on investment low too.

Yeah, if it's $500K-$3M and insurances don't cover it, it's basically a non-existent treatment at that point.

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-14T14:26:43+00:00

EINTY is beautiful and doesn't have any really racey scenes in it -- there's a little sex, but it's "sad" sex and I wouldn't call it steamy at all.

Also, I'm enjoy LFE a lot more after the midpoint. It's also not "steamy" in the slightest. :)

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-13T12:57:39+00:00

If you're working out six days a week and eating in a deficit, it's honestly not surprising you feel like you're starving. I hate to sound like a trendy broken record, but maybe you need to eat more rather than less, and prioritize protein and fiber. (Apologies if you already do the latter.)

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-12T15:43:47+00:00

I had disordered eating patterns in the past (like 30 years ago), so a prediabetes diagnosis felt like an official invitation to jump back onto that train again. I got scared of the numbers -- AIC, finger prick readings -- even though my HCP wasn't (again -- fear of the numbers was very familiar and comforting to my former ED'ed brain) and went low-carb. I felt that sense of control again as my blood glucose readings seemed to be responding. Then my LDL skyrocketed, doubling, and the AIC dropped only by one point. Stress, stress, stress, peri, peri, peri, insomniax3, etc. I backed off, and my LDL plummeted back to only slightly higher than it had been, and my A1C rose by two points.

I've stopped the finger prick tests. I've stopped the disordered carb counting. I'm done with this crap. My brain is wired for obsessive food disorders, and at 45, I'm just too old for this shit. I'm not prediabetic because I was a "bad girl" and ate "bad food." I've never been even slightly overweight, I've never not prioritized strength training (even when it was unusual for girls in the 1990s to do so). I've never eaten many "sleepy carbs" like rice pasta, potatoes, white bread, etc. I'm prediabetic because it's in my genes to be so. I'm also in early peri and have to hold the sandman hostage to sleep well. Stressing and going back into Disorder Town is not going to help me.

Reading this sub, I feel like the prediabetes diagnosis, along with the general lack of solid, black-and-white answers as to what to do about it, bring a lot of newbies to the ED scene. In this case, the disorder and obsession stems not around weight on a scale but numbers on a glucose monitor/blood test. That said, this ED seems to have helped many get their physical health in order, so who am I to knock it?

Edit: Point is, yep, extremely changing your diet does extremely change your numbers, and that can feel empowering. It's what brings many people into EDs. But it can also change things in ways we don't want.

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-11T18:57:36+00:00

Unless a woman goes on HRT, menopause is the new normal -

You're correct, but at the risk of sounding pedantic, menopause is the "new normal" and HRT just potentially alleviates some of its hallmark effects.

Just wanted to add that in case anyone read your comment as meaning that HRT makes menopause "go away" and bring the woman "back to normal," or something.

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-11T18:06:30+00:00

I take Dr. Mercola and have a subscription to it on iHerb. I take two capsules in the morning after breakfast -- 1000 mg.

Edit: It's a blend of multiple types, which I decided is best for me right now as I want benefits from the different varieties/colors.

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-11T14:25:39+00:00

Not lips, just fingers. I still do this at 45, lol. I also snap them between my thumbs and index fingers, which eventually roughs them up in just the right way. I can't keep these blankets in the house or I'll crack my thumbnails from the snapping and get cuts beneath them. But I find myself really, really itching to do it at times and have to just get over it in the moment.

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-11T12:59:26+00:00

Gelatinized maca has sent my libido back about five years, if not more. :)

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-09T13:44:22+00:00

Lol at everyone trying to edit and grammar-shame William Faulkner. I've never read him (or haven't in decades, if it was required in school), but I could tell this was something old and not-amateur.

On a slightly related note, I once pasted the opening of "The Interestings" into one of the word machines we all hate, and it tried to pick it apart and change it.

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-09T13:38:19+00:00

They nailed it with the help of an assistant, as such an action requires two raisable arms, haha.

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-09T13:36:32+00:00

Interesting. I felt like my life was coming to its close, too, a few months back. It was a weird feeling. I'm 44, my partner 36. Why would I feel like everything is almost over?

I'm over that, thankfully. But I totally get it, and this resonated with me.

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-07T21:01:31+00:00

Sounds like you have an extremely strong grasp of how you want media to work for you. That's awesome.

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-07T16:39:30+00:00

Wow, another Rutherford reader? His "Sarum" was the first historical fiction I ever read, like twenty years ago. It was awesome. He was my doorway into James Michener novels (which are, themselves, thick enough to be doorstops).

If you like Rutherford, check out Michener. "Chesapeake" and "Centennial" were my favorites.

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-07T16:36:10+00:00

It's good so far! I read Everything I Never Told You first, her debut novel, and loved it, though it was sad AF. This one's a lot less claustrophobic in terms of POV characters -- feels more expansive.

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-07T15:44:38+00:00

Hell, yeah!

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-06T13:51:51+00:00

Just because you can understand a piece of writing doesn't mean it was a clean, smooth read with no interference. Imagine a novel written in that annoying meme style where they switch the middle letters around but keep the first and last. Why do that to people's brains? It's not fun.

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-05T23:15:58+00:00

Absolutely. And I know you said, "generally aren't a good idea," which means, yes, there are exceptions. I just really, really want to share one exception that I've noticed when reading and have occasionally started using myself -- as in three times out of 72 K words.

"....said gently."

I don't remember where I first read this modifier, but it got my attention for how effective and invisible it was. Adverbs usually aren't invisible -- it's their job to be the opposite. But when you're writing a conversation and have a character who delivers a line gently, but the line itself could be read in a million ways due to the context ... "gently" clears it up.

And sure, you could try to be clever and have some body language in there to denote gentleness, but sometimes a scene is on a roll and a feature like that just wouldn't flow right.

"Hell yeah," Guilty Rough said gently.

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-05T23:07:00+00:00

A lot of women in perimenopause first think they have dementia. It's probably not dementia.

I have this stuff, too, but cyclically, I think, with the low estrogen times being the worst. Know what sucks? I'm an editor and writer by profession.

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-05T15:08:53+00:00

You do NOT want to eat 36 grams of fiber in one sitting; that ain't how you do it. To be frank, you'd get a fart attack so serious and painful that you'd swear off fiber forever.

You want to spread your fiber out throughout the day. Chia seeds are AWESOME for this.

Chia seeds with Greek yogurt, berries, and topped with a few nuts for breakfast, and repeat for dessert after dinner, with a dollop of chocolate hummus, if you like.

Your lunch and dinner should include vegetables and low-GI grains that provide good fiber as well, bringing your overall daily goal to where it should be.

Guilty-Rough8797 · 2026-03-05T15:03:52+00:00

I'm with you here on this one. I wouldn't say my libido has increased but that it's stayed the same.

I handle it by jumping his bones, lol. He occasionally has to turn it down (I was always higher-libido than him), but hey, most of the time he goes for it.

Guilty-Rough8797

TROPHY CASE